Mail Merge Cards

Mail Merge Cards lets students build (or use a premade) table of information, design a display layout for that information in a visual editor, and generate a personalised set of cards — one for every record in their data.

The designs can fit 9, 4 or 1 card onto an A4 sheet, making them suitable for Top Trumps style cards, topic fact-files or whole page certificates - perfect for integrating with topic work.

The activity naturally combines data handling, visual design, and subject-specific research into a single motivating activity.

Students begin by creating a table of records. This is an opportunity to discuss what makes a good dataset: relevant fields, appropriate data types (text, numbers, image URL, yes/no), and completeness.

• Choosing meaningful column headers (field names)
• Entering consistent, accurate data across rows
• Understanding the difference between text, numbers, and image URLs
• Sorting and reviewing data for quality

Data can be entered into the table in 3 ways:

• type directly into the table
• upload a .csv text file (comma separated values)
• replace current data with cells copied from a spreadsheet

For example, learners could collaboratively research a topic and build a table of data in Google Sheets, then copy the data cells to use to replace the mail merge table data.

The use of data tables is taught through the activities at whodunnit.primary-apps.com. Learners filter a table using clues derived from witness interviews to leave the sole possible suspect and solve crimes. It is suggested that the 'Whodunnit' explored before this mail merge activity for a more complete understanding of databases.

The card designer provides a canvas where students arrange adn style text fields, shapes, and images. The template is applied to every record, so students learn to think about layout in terms of reusable structure rather than one-off decoration. Each individual card can be previewed in the template designer, to ensure that the values for all records fit in the design space given.

Encourage students to consider hierarchy (what's most important?), alignment (does it look tidy?), and readability (can you read it at arm's length?).

Explore all the designer toolbar buttons as a shared activity - this might save a lot of design frustration and give a greater chance of success for all. As well as the toolbar buttons, many standard keyboard shortcuts can also be used:

• Shift + click - select multiple elements to edit together
• Shift + scroll - zoom
• Ctrl + C; Ctrl + V - copy & paste
• Ctrl + Z; Ctrl + Y - undo & redo
• Arrow keys - move objects

To populate their dataset, students need to research each item — whether that is a planet, a historical figure, or a species. This naturally practises locating reliable sources, selecting relevant facts, and summarising information concisely.

• Using books, websites, and reference materials
• Selecting key facts that fit the card's fields
• Writing concise descriptions within a character limit
• Attributing image sources

"I have been teaching databases to KS2 children for many years and have usually included a mail merge activity, as I have found it to be a key time saver as a teacher for tasks such as high volume certificate generation, individually named worksheets and planning docs. I've usually used Google Sheets with the Autocrat extension to perform the merges. This activity is an attempt to make such teaching available to teachers who will not have had the opportunity to gain such specialist skills and/or in settings without the necessary resources."

"Please see other resources shared at primary-apps.com."